Hatch enrolled at Harvard in 2005 before toiling near the bottom of the Crimson depth chart.
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One could say Hatch’s faith brought him to this stage. He was raised a Mormon in the Church of Latter Day Saints in Henderson, the second-largest city in Nevada. “It was how it was raised,” Hatch said of his upbringing. “It’s helped me a lot along the way in many different aspects.”
Coming out of high school, Hatch was aggressively recruited and eventually committed to Brigham Young University after communication with erstwhile head coach Gary Crowton. A colorful man and fellow Mormon, Crowton ... was forced to resign after leading the team to three straight losing seasons, the first sub-.500 campaigns in 29 years. Without Crowton, Hatch lost interest in playing for BYU. So, Crowton gave his friend Harvard coach Tim Murphy a call, encouraging him to pursue the young quarterback. Murphy did, and Hatch made his way to the northeast.
Hatch would spend a year wearing crimson, honing his skill with the team.
“He was a great kid. He was fun to play with,” [Harvard senior quarterback Chris] Pizzotti said. ...
Neither Hatch nor Pizzotti ever saw the field during 2004, when Ryan Fitzpatrick ’05 captained Harvard to an undefeated season...
As planned, Hatch took a leave of absence after his freshman year to go on his Mormon mission. For members of the church, a mission abroad is often seen as a rite of passage. While the team anticipated his departure, they, like Hatch, did not expect him to travel to Chile.
“We knew he had to go on his Mormon mission,” Pizzotti said, “It was just a matter of when he was going to do it. When he went to Chile, the guys gave him a hard time about it.”
Hatch explained that the intent of the mission was to provide much-needed service to a underprivileged community.
“It’s difficult a lot of the time, especially at this stage of your life, to have a chance to focus on something else other than just progressing through school and your career,” he said.
Planning to spend the normal two years away from home, Hatch prepared to dedicate himself to the Church mission.
“You talk to people everywhere on the streets and you help them out and if anyone is interested in our beliefs and the church you talk about that,” Hatch said.
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“My family had been in contact with [Crowton] and he heard what I was doing serving the church mission and all that,” Hatch said.
Crowton invited Hatch to Tigers camp and, in storybook fashion, Hatch earned his way on to the team—with a full scholarship [is this true or not? I thought he was a walk-on].
[Harvard coach] Murphy, who called Hatch “a great kid,” said that the quarterback asked him for his blessing before committing to LSU.
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Looking ahead to his future, Hatch is contemplating a professional football career.
“It’s definitely a dream, I think every football player keeps that somewhere,” Hatch said. “I feel like you can definitely have a great chance to go on the next level if you play here.”
“It’s not that you don’t get that at Harvard, don’t get me wrong,” he said.
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